Basic Suspension Maintenance Time!

Posted on November 15, 2016 by Paul P.

Have you been inspecting your suspension periodically? No?? Why not???

Just like most other aspects of your vehicle, an inspection of your suspension should be done. We typically like to inspect all suspension components, not just coilovers, during every oil change (every 5,000 miles). Suspension, and not just the shock absorbers, have quite a bit of components that will wear out over time. In the case of our adjustable suspension, there’s also the factor of more movable components that need to be inspected and tightened to specification.

It’s not uncommon for us to get calls about noise that customers are getting from their suspension, only to find that the noise isn’t related to our coilover, but something like a worn control arm bushing, worn sway bar end link, worn ball joint, or even factory upper mounts with worn rubber components (which, I’m sorry but, we do not sell OEM components).

When it comes to inspecting our coilovers, it is a good idea to inspect items like the spring seats and seat locks. Make sure these are still torqued to specification, following our owner’s manual included with your coilover kit.

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Prior to continuing, we must note that we highly recommend that a technician/mechanic perform such maintenance work. Should you choose to do any installation or maintenance work yourself, please do so at your own discretion. The following is simply information regarding our coilovers and for reference only.

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Seat locks that adjust the spring height/preload should be torqued to 42lbs-ft (+/- 2lbs-ft).

Seat locks for MacPherson strut types (that lock the lower bracket to the shock body) should be torqued to 101lbs-ft (+/- 3lbs-ft).

Seat locks for multi-link setups (that lock the lower bracket to the shock body) should be torqued to 51lbs-ft (+/- 2lbs-ft).

Seat locks for H.A.S. designs (height adjust systems, where the spring is separate from the shock) should be torqued to 42lbs-ft (+/- 2lbs-ft).

Other components to inspect on our coilovers are items like the dust boot, bump stop, and (if applicable) rubber spring seats. Some older models of TEIN suspension use a rubber spring seat between the seat lock and spring. This can start to crack over time. If so, get a replacement, or upgrade to the newer spring seat design that does without this rubber spring seat.

If you have our pillowball mount or upper mount included with your coilovers, also check to make sure all components are tightened down properly.

Some upper mounts included with our kit have a few components that need to be inspected, especially MacPherson strut type designs that have camber adjustability. The cap screws that allow you to slide the pillowball mount for camber must be tightened down to 14 lbs-ft. The flange nuts that secure the upper mount to the strut tower vary by manufacturer, but those never really require anything more than 20 lbs-ft.

Also, coilovers that include our own upper mount may include our own pillow nut. It’s essentially a collared nut that keeps the piston shaft centered in the pillowball. The collared portion will go into the pillowball itself as you tighten. For front strut type designs, this should be torqued to 45lbs-ft, while rears that are not strut type design (like a multilink setup) require 20lbs-ft.

As to torque values for securing our coilover to the lower control arms, you should reference the factory values of the vehicle manufacturer. These can be sourced online through a quick search, or through automotive forums for your specific vehicle (which should be easy to find).

For front strut type coilover applications that reuse the OEM upper mount assembly, it would also be wise to make sure the strut assembly can rotate freely from left to right. Since the car needs to steer, the OEM upper mount has a bearing that allows the strut assembly to rotate with the knuckle assembly whenever you do steer. In some cases, the bearing can be worn and cause a grinding type sound.

Let’s say you’ve done all this basic maintenance, buttoned everything up, and now going for a drive. Maybe you noticed some squeaking noises. Have you checked your control arm and sway bar bushings?

In many cases, bushings are difficult to inspect. Sometimes their placement makes it very hard to see. You may even need to drop an arm just to be able to get a good look at the bushing. Fortunately, most rubber bushings last pretty long and typically only need to be inspected every 3ok miles or so.

When rubber bushings do go bad, they start to crack and as they pivot, they will squeak. Rubber bushings aren’t like many of the polyurethane, or even Delrin type bushings (highly inadvisable for street use), that are free pivoting. Most rubber bushings have a steel outer shell and a steel inner shell or tube, which are bonded because of the rubber. So that means that as the control arm pivots around its axis, the rubber has to stretch and compress. Eventually, as a rubber bushing dries out, it will start to tear itself apart, and that is what creates noises.

Replacing an old, worn rubber trailing arm bushing with a free pivoting polyurethane bushing. As you can see here, the trunnion wasn’t even attached to the bushing anymore. The rubber completely broke off. Fortunately, the trunnion’s placement prevented the arm from completely being loose and dropping out of position. Still, that can cause major damage to the underside of your car, and even cause erratic handling.

Freshly inserted trailing arm bushing with the trunnion cleaned of old rubber and reinserted into the new bushing. Because the trunnion is now able to pivot freely, it must be inspected frequently and lubricated to prevent the bushing from drying out. Otherwise, it will start to crack and create creaking or squeaking noises while driving.

Some notes about polyurethane bushings:

Polyurethane bushings, which are very common in aftermarket performance, have some distinctions that make them a likely upgrade for most consumers. Poly bushings, even though offered in various durometers (hardness), have better NVH characteristics than rubber bushings. And, because many of them are much harder than rubber, they don’t deflect as much under load, contributing to better maintained wheel alignment. When they do deflect, they tend to have better memory and can return to shape much more consistently.

TEIN Polyurethane Control Arm Bushings for GRB Subaru. These require a special type of lubricant (included with the kit) to prevent them from drying out.

However, polyurethane can also dry out. And there’s a special grease that’s needed for periodic maintenance, which most aftermarket bushing manufacturers either provide or sell their proprietary grease.

So, periodically inspect your bushings since they are just as critical for a properly operating suspension.

Having a great handling car is obviously very fun, but it still requires upkeep to maintain that great performance you expect out of it.

Global Time Attack’s Super Lap Battle 2016

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Paul P.

This week is the Super Lap Battle Time Attack event at Buttonwillow Raceway Park, hosted by Global Time Attack.

Damn, that’s a mouthful to say…

Anyhow, we’ve continued to attend the event for the past 6 consecutive years now. Our main purpose is to check out how the event goes, see how it has grown, and also to assist any teams/drivers that are using TEIN suspension.

For the most part, most teams/drivers are pretty experienced with their setup. So it’s not like we’re trying to rearrange everything they’ve setup and working for them. We just want to see how we can extract a bit more performance with a little bit of tuning. We bring one of our in-house engineers to speak with the driver and get feedback on how the car feels. From that, we are able to make an assessment on whether any changes to the suspension should be made, or if some other aspect should be altered. Funny enough, tire pressures tend to be overlooked.

The past few years has really just left us looking like spectators, however. Again, most of the teams have their race cars sorted out. So there isn’t much for us to do except check out the progress of each session.

For this year, we really only know of two teams on TEIN-equipped cars competing. Evasive Motorsports is bringing their R35 GT-R to run in the Unlimited AWD class, and Sport Car Motion (SCM) has their DC2 Type R Integra in the Limited FWD class. Both teams using our Super Racing damper kits.

The SCM Type R has proven to be plenty fast, mainly because they know how to extract the most out of their Rotrex-charged K24 engine setup. [Not] oddly enough, their Super Racing dampers are completely off-the-shelf. No changes in valving, and spring rates are per our recommendation. We did a refresh on the dampers last year, but unfortunately the car couldn’t make the event. Considering this specific Super Racing kit was on the team’s previous EG Civic race car, and that it has just over 6 years of use, the dampers were due for a rebuild anyway. We look forward to seeing the Type R run again this week!

Evasive Motorsports has only taken their GT-R, in its current iteration, to a couple of track days. Back when the car had the very basics (our Super Racing dampers, racing brake pads, upgraded wheels & tires), they were using our recommended setup. Now, with a slightly wider body and more aero additions, we’ve uprated their springs. Other than that, the Super Racing dampers have our 3-way units installed, but valving has been kept as out-of-the-box. Wheels are a bit larger now, and they’re using a much more sticky tire. On its maiden voyage in this setup at Buttonwillow, the car did something in the neighborhood of a 1:47.00 lap time. No time spent trying to fine tune anything, and that’s what they run……… Damn. We weren’t expecting something that quick for what is essentially a still very street-bound car with full interior, full amenities. While we would love to attribute this shockingly fast time to our dampers, the fact is that Evasive Motorsports aren’t any slouches when it comes to building a proper car for the track. We’ll see what else the team does to knock down a couple more seconds from the timer.

Other than those two cars, which would keep our engineer busy enough, we’ve yet to hear of anyone else that may need our assistance. But, as I mentioned, they probably don’t need our help……

……….. You know what,,,,, this is just starting to sound like an excuse for us to just go and watch some racing! Don’t tell my boss…

Adjusting Damping on a TEIN Coilover

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Paul P.

Just a quick reminder to those who are new to our adjustable suspension, specifically regarding damping setting (soft to stiff, and vice versa).

With the exception of some racing kits like our N1 dampers or Gr.N rally dampers, our damping adjustable kits are 16-way adjustable, or 16 usable settings, if that’s easier to understand.

Our adjustment knob for damping.

Now, we get plenty of calls about customers who have 27 or 30-way adjustable damping. If you don’t have an N1 or Gr.N damper kit, then please pay attention- there are only 16 usable damping settings.

Yes, the adjustment knob may have more than 16 detents as you turn the knob, but we advise you not to exceed the 16th click (counter clockwise, if you’re staring directly at the knob).

If you’re staring at the adjustment knob, clockwise is stiff, and counter clockwise is soft.

So, to find out what click setting you’re on, count the number of clicks while turning the knob clockwise until it stops. That figure will be what damping setting you’re at. If you counted more than 16 clicks, you were well past any usable damping setting our kit was designed with. So, now that you’ve turned the knob clockwise until it stops, you’re now at our 0 (zero) click setting, which is the stiffest setting. Simply turn the knob counter clockwise until you find the setting you prefer (again do not exceed 16 clicks).

Why we ask you not to exceed the 16 click setting- it does not offer any benefit or additional change in damping force. In fact, leaving the setting somewhere past the 16th click can cause damage to the needle valve’s setting. So don’t do it.

You may be wondering- “Why would we have an adjuster with more that 16 click settings if knob can easily surpass the 16th click?” Good question. We use the same click knob on our race coilovers, such as the aforementioned N1 and Gr.N damper kits. It was more cost-effective for us to create a click knob that we can use across all models of our damping adjustable suspension, so we simply applied this same knob to our SUPER STREET, STREET ADVANCE/STREET ADVANCE Z, Type FLEX/STREET FLEX/FLEX Z, MONO FLEX/MONO SPORT, SUPER RACING, and several other coilovers that have 16 usable damping settings.

From our owner’s manual:

Corrosion Protection

Posted on October 17, 2016 by Paul P.

Without a doubt, a huge hurdle we must face with our suspensions, other than properly tuning the dampers for a given application, is making sure it will last for many years. Of course being a wear & tear item, dampers don’t necessarily need to last forever. But that doesn’t stop us from trying to attain such a goal anyway.

Coatings, or paint, for that matter, have come a long way from a technological standpoint. The thin barrier that these coatings add to a surface turn an otherwise corrosion-susceptible item to a long lasting one. Over the decades, improvements in coating adhesion have made it an economical solution for many manufacturers, such as TEIN.

Customers have asked us before why we don’t adopt certain materials that are corrosion resistant off the bat, such as stainless steel. It’s not that we feel stainless steel isn’t a suitable material. Cost is a big factor. Rigidity is also a very important factor. We use high-strength steel because it’s cost-effective and provides a great structural base to build a suspension from. Like steel, stainless steel comes in various different alloy grades. For the most part, stainless steel is a great material. If we wanted to select the most appropriate stainless steel for a damper body, it would be fairly expensive to produce a coilover kit. There are cheaper alternatives of stainless that we can use, but make no mistake- stainless steel can still corrode (just not as easily). It may have stain resistance, as its name implies, but it will not be fully corrosion resistant.

The high-strength steel we use offers us great engineering freedom in trying to make as light a weight suspension without sacrificing a damper body’s needed rigidity. On applications like MacPherson strut designs, dampers not only have to endure stresses from compression and rebound cycles, they also have to endure side loading. Being an integral part of a strut suspension design (keeping the knuckle assembly in place requires a relatively robust design), it may prove to be difficult to build a lightweight steel strut assembly. However, our kits are quite a bit lighter than OEM suspension. High-strength steel is still our number one choice for such applications, and for a majority of our suspension kits because of this factor.

We do use aluminum for various components- spring seat locks, upper mounts, lower brackets, and of course damper bodies. Common grades of aluminum we use are 2017, 6061, and 7075. The key benefit is aluminum alloy’s lightweight and structural rigidity. But again, cost is a limiting factor in why we don’t apply it in every suspension kit. Also, making an aluminum bodied strut (MacPherson), even though still lightweight, would be extremely expensive. And yes, aluminum can corrode. We have to use anodizing to protect aluminum parts. However, these still require periodic maintenance and inspection to make sure there is no surface corrosion.

So, all this talk about corrosion is probably making every suspension manufacturer sound bad. Not really. Quite obviously there are ways to extend the life of certain materials. We use advanced coatings and processes on our suspension components. Again, is that perfect? No. But it does at least give our products a long service life. To date, we’ve pioneered a 2-Layer/1-Bake powdercoating process that streamlines damper body coating and increases productivity for us. Typically, setting up a powdercoat process takes a lot of time, and baking (curing) of the powdercoat is a majority of that time.

Making sure our powdercoating adheres to the damper bodies properly, we have a few stages of surface treatment prior to the final powder paint being applied.

If we didn’t do surface treatment (Blast Treatment), the powder paint would easily chip and flake off the damper. All these steps produce a coating that holds up better to debris, which can easily get kicked up and flinging in the wheel well, easily damaging the damper body.

ZT coating has been one of our saving graces when it comes to corrosion protection. This provides us an ultra durable surface over our steel components that has both low friction and abrasion resistant properties, while also being lightweight. It’s also a process we can’t give too many details on. It isn’t really a liquid paint, nor is it a powder paint. Also, unlike paints, ZT coating adheres evenly on our dampers, including threaded bodies. Typical painting on threads may cause excess paint to gather in the valleys of a thread, while the peaks of the threads are only thinly coated. ZT coating coats completely even. However, we’ve been able to perfect the process in-house further increasing productivity (rather than outsourcing). Due to its low-friction nature, ZT coating provides smooth seat lock adjustment year-round.

We previously used a chrome plating process for threaded bodies (we still do on very limited applications). However, being able to do our ZT coatings in-house means we can quickly turn around manufacturing and reduce our costs. We can now make ZT coating part of our approach to affordable and reliable performance suspension.

Speaking of outsourcing, we do have to outsource for anodizing. That’s one of the few things we don’t do in-house.

Our goal, other than creating a high performing, long lasting suspension, is to provide an affordable suspension offering. High performance doesn’t have to be associated with high costs, which is what we want to prove. By attaining the ability to do a majority of our coating processes in-house, we’re able to apply a very important aspect towards creating reliable suspensions at very reasonable pricing.

All these extra measures in surface protection aren’t perfect. We can’t predict what type of circumstances our suspension will be subjected to, which is why we continually do research and development both in the lab and on the roads to improve our processes. With that said, we’re quite pleased with how our surface treatments have performed. Used not only on street-bound cars, we’ve applied these very techniques to racing applications, with rally racing being one of the most brutal on our suspension. Because of our continued developments, we know that newer methods for surface protection and corrosion resistance will make our current methods obsolete. However, we know we’re already putting out some of the best, long lasting suspension kits out into the market. As always, we’ll continue to pursue technical innovation and pass along our achievements to you, our valued customers.

New TEIN Magnetic Cell Phone Holder

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Paul P.

Brand new from us is our Magnetic Cell Phone Holder!

While this might sound like an item that doesn’t or shouldn’t relate to TEIN, first off, it’s just a nice accessory to have!

Second, if you’re already familiar with the Defi Smart Adapter W product we distribute, an item compatible with smartphones (and tablets) and turns them into a fully functional gauge cluster, one issue many of you might have is how to mount your cell phone to be able to effectively use the Smart Adapter W app while driving.

So, this simply offers you a solution to mount your phone in a location that makes it easily accessible. And, of course, if you use your smartphone for GPS/Navigation (which most all smartphones have the capability), this makes it easy to see the map on your phone while you drive.

Included with the Cell Phone Holder is two sizes of steel backing plates to be mounted to your phone’s backside. From there, it’s a simple as mounting the magnet onto your A/C vent and sticking your phone right to the magnet. Easy!

*It works great on smartphones, but most tablets are too heavy and the magnet may not be strong enough to hold such weight.

For $14 (MSRP), it’s nice addition into making your drive much more comfortable and enjoyable!

Part number: TN029-002

Here’s what’s included with the Magnetic Cell Phone Holder

Small steel backing plate on an iPhone 6S Plus

Large steel backing plate on an iPhone 6S Plus

Now it’s easy to have your smartphone mounted and within eye’s view while driving!

STREET BASIS Z for Nissan 350Z and Infiniti G35 Now Available!

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Paul P.

As of today, September 1, 2016 we have released our new STREET BASIS Z for:

2003-2008 Nissan 350Z (Coupe & Convertible)
2003-2006 Infiniti G35 Sedan
2003-2007 Infiniti G35 Coupe

Part number: GSP26-8UAS2
MSRP: $550

The new STREET BASIS Z retains the features and tuning that the previous STREET BASIS line offered, but with a greater adjustability range for ride height. Also utilizes our fully sealed dampers bringing overall costs down and translates to a very low price for the consumer!

Contact your authorized TEIN dealer for ordering!!!

Why Nitrogen Gas for Dampers?

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Paul P.

When we get this question, it’s typically assumed that the customer thinks we only fill our dampers with nitrogen gas. We get this question at shows, even though we have our clear damper models that people can try for themselves and literally see the damper oil inside the damper.

We in fact do use nitrogen gas, but the damper’s internal volume also comprises of damper oil as well. Whether it is a twin tube or monotube setup, they both use damper oil and nitrogen.

The damper oil, which is a specific weight and proprietary for our use, is what helps us regulate damping force. Our shims, which are used to control oil flow through the piston valve (and base valve, if applicable), are matched with this weight oil and it makes our engineers’ jobs easier when determining valving specifications for each application or for revalved dampers.

The oil also helps to transfer kinetic energy (and friction) from the the damper’s operation into heat energy, which is then dissipated through the damper body and radiated into the air.

Nitrogen gas is filled to a certain pressure, determined when we’ve calculated how much damper oil each damper is to receive (and how much the piston shaft will displace during compression). Nitrogen gas does several things. For one, it helps to allow the piston shaft to compress into the damper. If, for example, we only filled the damper with oil and we filled it completely (with no air gaps), the piston shaft wouldn’t compress into the damper at all. This is because oil is incompressible.

The piston shaft requires a certain volume within the damper. Think of it as going into a pool that’s filled to the brim with water. When you go in, you will displace some of that water. No matter how slowly you enter the pool, the water will want to spill out. The piston shaft wants to do the same exact thing, pushing oil out of the damper. But since it is fully sealed, there’s nowhere for the oil to go, so the piston shaft can’t compress.

Nitrogen is compressible, on the other hand. If we fill the remaining internal volume with nitrogen gas (at a specific pressure), the piston shaft will now have room to compress into the damper. I mentioned that the gas has to be at a specific pressure. Too much pressure and the shaft will basically have a hard time compressing into the damper. Again, because gas still has mass, it has to be a controlled amount that you pressurize the damper to. This effectively creates damper rebound. Since the piston shaft can compress into the damper in one direction, the piston rod can rebound in the opposite direction. Now we have a damper that offers control for both compression and rebound, and the shim stacks on the piston valve help control the speed of the piston valve for a given velocity.

Nitrogen also has some distinct advantages than using air. Air contains mostly Nitrogen by volume (depending on the altitude, that may change slightly), but because air also comprises of oxygen and hydrogen, there’s a chance that moisture can form within the damper. We use nitrogen because it helps reduce aeration and cavitation during damper operation. Very high piston speeds can create cavitation, which translates into a momentary loss in damping force. Aeration is the formation of bubbles in the damper oil, which also affects damping force. If we used just air as the remaining volume in the damper, these problems will be exacerbated. Using only nitrogen helps reduce these potential problems.

Nitrogen also expands at a constant rate compared to just air. That means a more consistent internal pressure as the damper operates. Because it also has a greater density than just air, that means a damper can hold its pressurized charge for a longer period of time.

One other characteristic is that nitrogen is inert. It’s safe to use for shock absorbers. It will not react to other components of the damper, even the damper oil. Keep in mind, however, that shock absorbers are pressurized. The nitrogen may be inert, but the damper oil can be flammable (which is why we warn end-users of exposures of shock absorbers to open flames).

In a monotube damper, the nitrogen charge is separated by a floating (or “free”) piston. That means that the oil is completely separate of the nitrogen. Since the floating piston is free moving, as the piston shaft compresses into the damper, the floating piston will compress the nitrogen charge.

On a twin tube damper, the oil and nitrogen share the same volume. While the inner tube, or working tube, of the damper is basically all damper oil, the outer tube is a mix of some of the damper oil while the top (because the gas is lighter than damper oil) is nitrogen. So, as the piston shaft compresses into the damper, the oil is physically compressing the oil in the outer tube.

There are a few issues that can exist with a twin tube damper. For one, it works best when near vertical alignment and with the base valve towards the bottom. Again, because nitrogen is lighter, it’s tendency is to rise to the highest point inside the damper. But, the base valve can only work properly in damper oil, otherwise it will lose damping effectiveness. This is why you never really see an inverted twin tube setup, unless you were to have one of our HG dampers (which you can read about The Pains of Rally Racing), then it’s technically possible. Although best in a near vertical alignment, you can position a twin tube at a few degrees from vertical, so long as the nitrogen doesn’t have a chance of entering the working tube. However, if nitrogen were to enter the working tube, it can be worked out into the outer tube during function. But, while it is still in the working tube, it can create a gap in damping force until the gas eventually works its way into the outer tube again.

There are other inert gases that can technically be used, but nitrogen’s density is far greater and meets the purposes of a damper’s function pretty well.

So, there you have it. We use nitrogen AND oil in our dampers.

Inside Ryan Millen’s Workshop

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Paul P.

While Ryan Millen and his team are busy and en route to their next event, Gorman Rally, we went to his shop to take some measurements of our dampers, which we recently finished up for them and are now installed onto his other RAV-4.

Here are a few pictures of the car while it was on jackstands:

Still some final prep before this car goes into its next event.

We needed to take a few measurements of the dampers installed, as well as check the settings.

Kind of surprised to see OEM disc brakes and sliding calipers on a full-fledged rally car. Then again, this probably is a great testament to the factory equipment.

Rears were harder to get a good look at, since they’ve buttoned everything up, including gravel guards.

Kind of hard to not get distracted in this shop. I mean, its filled with race cars and parts. Rod Millen (Ryan’s father) has his old Pikes Peak Tacoma. That kept getting my attention!

TEIN China Has Some Opposition

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Paul P.

I still refuse to name other brands that like to bash on us. Really, it wouldn’t be hard for you to find for yourself. Just do a quick search online and you’re bound to find some type of “claim” about us. Or TEIN China, rather.

We were recently forwarded an email from one of our distributors in Europe. They received a sales email from a Chinese parts manufacturer, one that is well-known in the U.S. At least, in my opinion. Obviously they had concern regarding TEIN after reading the following from that email:

News:

Nowadays, the brands – Tein establish factories in China to lower their price in this market. Our company has five branches in china, and knew Tein about half year ago, in that time, they are already sales their products in very lower price. After six months, their quality cause big problems for oil leaking. For their products, as long as the products are made in China, the oil leaking rate is over 50%. We are here to remind you, do not over care about Tein’s lower price products.

Recently, our sole distributions observe that there are some new Taiwan brands who offer lower price in this market. In fact, those new brands all come from some small underground factory, and they specialize in manufacturing counterfeit products from other famous brands. We have the survey of Taiwan’s brand from Hong Kong’s magazine which include some pictures and capital of each company. We can send the information for you to provide to your customers as reference in your country if you need.

Apologies for the terrible grammar in that excerpt. That’s what it says. I unashamedly copied and pasted.

It’s quite obviously bothersome to us. We only recently launched the new STREET BASIS Z & STREET ADVANCE Z, which are the only two product lines currently coming from our TEIN China factory. Yet, this company, who has decided to go public with “facts”, states that our TEIN China dampers have a 50% leaking rate. These new dampers were just made available in May. I’d like to know where they got this claim from.

Are our new STREET BASIS Z & STREET ADVANCE Z lines cheaper? Absolutely. We decided the only way to address our customers’ concerns is by being able to produce a suspension that our customers could afford. HOWEVER, this was not to be done at the expense of quality. Cheaper in cost is our goal, not cheaper in quality.

We own this TEIN China factory (and it is only one factory. not multiple as the email excerpt implies), and we control all aspects of its operations and product development. We would never, NEVER, release such faulty products with a supposed 50% leaking rate to our customers.

I made mention of the official release of the new STREET BASIS Z & STREET ADVANCE Z lines a while ago. I stated that there was a delay in the release of these due to quality concerns. However, the concern was due to noise from the damper during function testing. NOT LEAKING. This is exactly why we had to delay the release of these suspension kits. Again, these products never made it into customers hands.

The below pictures are from a magazine that visited our TEIN China factory during a media day. They got to take a look at what goes into our damper manufacturing, and took a lot of pictures regarding piston shaft inspection, among other processes.

TEIN China staff put components through the same stages of inspection and cleaning that TEIN Japan manufacturing employs. In fact, much of the machinery used in TEIN China is the same as in Japan.

Piston Rods going through our scanner for any defects. Piston rods that do not pass will be discarded for scrap.

Piston Valves going through inspection.

Even extremely small imperfections on piston shafts will be reexamined by staff to verify what our scanning machines discover.

Bad batches of piston shafts being put away for scrapping.

TEIN China was a huge undertaking for us. We’re not outsourcing manufacturing of our kits. We’re doing this ourselves. We’ve got a lot invested in this operation, and we’re not going to skimp on quality to provide you, our customer, with half-assed manufactured products. Quality, and ultimately your safety, is of utmost importance to us, and quality will go into every suspension kit we make. Safety, high quality, & reasonable prices. We must meet all three of those requirements. No exceptions.

I must also note that each and every damper coming from TEIN China goes through damping force check on a dynamometer. This ensures correct function of each damper prior to packaging.

Does that guarantee that a part will never fail? Absolutely not. However, putting as much effort as we do into our manufacturing reduces the amount of parts failures. Even with that said, we stand by our products and will assist our customers to the best of our abilities should they have claims of their own.

So, while I refuse to name drop this Chinese suspension company trying to bash TEIN China, I will say this: Purple. I will also say this: Mighty Ducks Part II.

So, anywho, do not over care about that kind of stuff……….. whatever that means.

Where TEIN Sources Materials for Manufacturing

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Paul P.

We’ve seen this topic come up as a discussion point for coilovers on automotive forums before. It’s a worthwhile discussion since many people will argue that this affects the “Made In Japan” label, or a “Made in Whatever-Country-We-Are-Talking-About” label, for that matter.

Why is this important? To us, it’s good to know because, while we do a majority of our manufacturing in Japan, it is clear that Japan is only so big. Certain raw materials clearly cannot come from such a small place, and other countries have industries that are better suited for manufacturing certain materials. Therefore, we must look to outside countries to source our materials, whether raw or preformed.

While we do manufacture such items like our springs, dampers, and even our spring seats/seat locks, we may have to source the alloys (in the form of wire, tubing, & billets or barstock) from countries such as China, Indonesia, Australia, and even from the U.S. It is all dependent on whether the materials can be sourced from each country, and whether those materials meet our standards for the products we make.

Extruded tubing that has been cut to length are placed in our automatic feeder for our lathes to be machined.

TEIN Japan New Facility (Jan 4, 2016 076

Our steel knuckle brackets are made in-house using materials (tubing and stamped steel sheet) sourced from other countries.

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Our piston rods come in as long cold-drawn bar stock. We then cut to length, gun drill, machine, thread, & polish as necessary.

Items like our dust boots and eye ring bushings, which comprise mainly of rubber, come from China. This wasn’t always the case. In fact, we once had an issue with some eye ring bushings where the rubber bushing separated from the steel shell. So, we had to source some replacements from a Japanese manufacturer. But even then, we imagine the materials used by this Japanese manufacturer came by way of China. Still, we were able to resolve the matter, even if it meant recalling some of these Chinese manufactured bushings and paying a bit more from the Japanese supplier.

Steel, a very important part of TEIN suspensions, and a component that goes into our damper shellcases, upper mounts, and springs (in a different alloy), may also come from our Chinese suppliers.

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Extruded steel tubing used for our shell cases and lower brackets.

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Steel bar stock is cut to specific sizes in order to mount onto our lathes for multi-step machining. These will eventually become pillow ball cases for our upper mount assemblies.

Aluminum alloy barstock being cut to length.

The three common grades of aluminum alloy we use for our suspension components.

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Machined components from both steel and aluminum bar stock/billet.

Some of our electronics, such as our EDFC systems (EDFC Controllers) come from China. They’re designed in-house at TEIN Japan, much in the way that some of our Smartphones are designed by U.S. engineers, but made in China. Other components of EDFC, such as cables and stepping motors, come from Indonesia.

Small components, like nuts and bolts, can also come from an overseas supplier.

We don’t try to hide from the fact that some parts are made overseas and not from Japan. You can even see where some of these parts are made since we have to put the country of origin right on the packaging or on the items themselves.

And again, our STREET BASIS Z & STREET ADVANCE Z line come from our TEIN China plant, our very own manufacturing facility (we choose not to outsource our Chinese made suspension kits). ***HOWEVER, regarding our springs for these suspension kits, we actually do import finished springs from Japan due to a quality concern we had with the first batch of coilover springs we were making in China.Fortunately we discovered this spring issue in our quality control tests, so these items never reached the consumer. Until we can get spring manufacturing in China corrected, we will continue to import the springs from Japan.

Also, as we do with each and every damper made in Japan, each and every TEIN China manufactured damper goes through our damper dyno to ensure proper damping force and function. It’s time consuming and not very cost-efficient, but we’ve got a reputation as a quality manufacturer to uphold. Until we can rectify the issue with our Chinese manufactured coilover springs, we’ll continue to import the springs from Japan.

Each and every component we use for our suspension kits goes through rigorous testing to make sure they meet our requirements well before they even make its way into one of our kits. EVERY COMPONENT. We push items like our dust boots and bump stops, even the thrust washer between the spring and seat lock, to the point of destruction, just to see exactly how long they will last and under what type of loads/stresses they are subjected to before failing. Coatings like our patented 2-Layer/1-Bake powdercoating, our pioneered low-friction ZT coating, and even our anodizing are placed in accelerated aging and salt water spraying to test against corrosion. You may have already seen our video regarding our lowering springs and how they compare to a counterfeit (in terms of spring design. not necessarily in terms of color and labeling). That’s the kind of testing that enables us to make the highest quality product for the money.

If we cannot find a component or material that meets our needs, we will do what we can to manufacture the parts ourselves. It may be costly for us to do it in that way, but it may sometimes be the only option we have.

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Our in-house quality control section. All components are inspected and tested prior to making their way into one of our kits.

Piston rod inspection ensures defect-free finishing, critical in ensuring longevity and high performance function of our shock absorbers.

This is what differentiates our definition of “Made In Japan” compared to other Japanese suspension manufacturers, and we’re now redefining what “Made In China” or “P.R.C.” (People’s Republic of China) stands for. We push these statements well beyond the standard, and even beyond your very understanding. We hope that our customers know that, wherever our components come from, quality will be our highest priority well before you get your hands on our products.

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